Sourcing and verification

Readers should always be able to see where information comes from. This page describes how our publications choose their sources and how a story is checked before it is published.

Primary sources first

We go to the source of the information wherever it exists: the document, the ruling, the official figures or the person who was there. Reports, judgments, accounts and public records are read in full, not repeated from someone else's summary.

Named sources

Sources are named in the text, so the reader can judge them. Every article lists the sources it is based on.

Anonymous sources

Anonymity is the exception, and it is weighed every time. We use an anonymous source only when the information matters enough to justify it, when it has been confirmed elsewhere, and when the source has good reason to stay unnamed. The article explains why the source is not named and how the source knows what they describe. We protect the identity of a source who has been promised anonymity.

How a story is checked

Every article is checked against the sources it rests on, claim by claim. Every quotation is checked against what was actually said, in the words that were used. Names, numbers and dates are checked against their source. When sources disagree, both accounts are given.

A story that does not hold is not published. It waits until the facts are settled, or it is dropped.

Pictures

Photographs and graphics are credited. We use pictures we have the right to use, and a picture is never altered in a way that changes what it shows.